Yearly Archives: 2016

May 2016 marks 200 years since the birth of J. C. Ryle. Soon to be released is Iain H. Murray’s new biography of the first Bishop of Liverpool, entitled J. C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone.1 Ryle’, says Marcus Loane, ‘marked out a path for evangelical churchmen in days when much of the Church of […]

This is a book that frankly you wish didn’t have to be written but which you are glad has been. It became necessary because of the recent developments in the Church of Scotland which have seen the denomination reject the authority of Scripture and its biblical roots and accept the ordination of ministers who are […]

Elizabeth Prentiss lived in a different century, but the challenges she faced, and the way she responded to those challenges, speak powerfully to us today. Early in their married life, Elizabeth and her husband, George suffered the loss of two of their six children. Eddie died aged five and Bessie died when just a few […]

Introduction When Jude writes in his Epistle, ‘Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints’ (Jude 3), he expresses a need that […]

As we consider the state of the church today there is much to discourage us. We think of the conformity to the spirit of the world, the lack of depth in Christian experience, the absence of heart religion, the paucity of the fear of God, the disregard of the Lord’s day, the lax attitude to […]

Australian missionaries Jocelyn and Ken Elliott, both in their 80s, had been running a hospital for some four decades in the town of Djibo in the West African country of Birkina Faso when they were captured by an al Qaeda-linked terrorist group over a month ago and are believed to have been held in neighbouring […]

The following is an excerpt from Why Read Church History1 by J. Philip Arthur It is fatally easy to develop an uncritical admiration for our heroes, but no one is beyond criticism. One of the most refreshing things about the Bible is that it never conceals the faults of God’s servants. There are numerous examples […]

Those who love the writings of Jonathan Edwards will be pleased to know that Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, assisted by the Jonathan Edwards Center, has completed a high‐resolution scan of the entire Edwards Collections at both Yale University and Andover Newton Theological School. Go to beinecke.library.yale.edu to view and use the scans. […]

A review by Bob Thomas of Preparation For Ministry.1 Carl Trueman calls this book ‘A brief but brilliant book on ministry’, and so it is. Allan Harman’s wisdom gathered over half a century’s involvement in theological education, more latterly as Professor of Old Testament and then Principal of the Presbyterian Theological College, Melbourne, is distilled […]

‘Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood.’ (Isaiah 59:7) On the evening of April 6, 1994, Rwandan President Habyarimana, a Hutu, was flying into the airport in Kigali when his plane was struck by two rockets, killing him and all on board, including the President of nearby Burundi, Cyprien Ntariyamira. […]

The Bible, at times, makes for very uncomfortable reading. Consider these opening verses of 1 Kings 11:1-8: ‘Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter […]

“. . . He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death,” (Colossians 1:21) Ideas matter. Ideas have consequences. Secularism is a political and moral philosophy devoid of any faith or worship. Last week I noted the lead up to the French Revolution, showing how three combustible ingredients-corruption in government, oppression of the […]

2015 marked the two-hundredth anniversary of a change of pastorate for the Rev. Thomas Chalmers. On Sunday 9th July 1815, after a ministry of twelve years, Chalmers preached a farewell sermon to his congregation in Kilmany (Kilmany is a village in the Fife region of Scotland). Later that month he was inducted to the pastorate […]

‘. . . He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.’ (Colossians 1:21) A good working definition of secularism is this-secularism is a political and social philosophy devoid of any faith or worship. In other words, the secularist (from the […]

‘I am His’. Every believer in Jesus may say it. And with full assurance. ‘I am the Lord’s’. Humblingly and astonishingly we may also say that he is ours. To the Christian, God is not just the Lord but my Lord. But it is of the bond by which we have become his of which […]